Today I applied a bit more elbow grease to the ratchet spanner I was using to turn the mainshaft and attempt to get some oil circulating in the engine. I realised that if I put the machine in fourth gear I could achieve the same thing turning from the rear wheel, perhaps with a bit less effort because I'd have the full diameter of the wheel as leverage to turn the engine.
This worked really well and I was able to get the engine moving quite quickly by pulling on the tyre. I persisted with this routine each time I visited the workshop during the day.
Suddenly, it all started to get easier. This happened with the Square Four - the oil reaches the major bearing areas and they start to slide much more freely. I decided to give the big drill another try.
Even turning the wheel I had started to see a lot of oil around the pump. This would be emerging from the cam and idler bearings I think. With more engine speed derived from the drill, this area became a lot wetter but I still wasn't getting anything at the tank.
I was on the verge of giving up for the day and heading home for some tea, when oil appeared at the tank return. It takes a while to get up here when you have a filter, because of course the filter has quite a significant volume to fill:
A couple more minutes on the big drill had oil appearing at the rocker feed banjos.
So that's that - very pleasing. The next step is to close it all up and get it running.
Sounds so easy when you say it like that!
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